Holiday lets are not a side-line in l’Albir. In a memorandum published in June 2026, the town hall reported 1,219 registered tourist dwellings in the municipality in 2025, up from 441 in 2012, and found more than nine in ten of them in the Albir area. When the owner lives in another country and guests arrive at all hours, a small combination box fixed by the door is one way to hand the keys over.
A key box is a lock like any other, left outdoors all year. It deserves the same check before the season as the front door.
What wears out on a key box
- The dials or buttons. Sun fades and dries the plastic; sand and salt work into the gaps. A dial that has to be wiggled into position will one day not reach it.
- The release catch. It is opened and closed by every guest, many of them in a hurry and in the dark.
- The fixing. Screws into a render that crumbles, or a box hung on a pipe that turns. A box that can be twisted off is no box at all.
- The code. Codes are shared in messages, written on notes and remembered long after checkout.
The spring check, in ten minutes
- Open and close the box ten times with the current code. Any hesitation now becomes a failure in August.
- Change the code, and write the new one down somewhere that is not the box.
- Pull on the box. It should not move, rotate or flex.
- Check that the key inside still turns the front door smoothly. A worn key in a worn cylinder is a lock change waiting to happen.
- Look at the door it serves. In a block, the street door may need a key of its own on the same ring.
What to tell guests before they arrive
- The exact location of the box, with a photo: left or right of the door, behind a plant, inside the gate.
- How the box opens (push, slide, turn), not only the code.
- Which key opens which door, if there is more than one.
- The number to ring if the box will not open, which can be this one: a person answers at any hour, and the owner or agency is asked to confirm before a door is opened.
When the box fails anyway
Do not let a guest attack it with a screwdriver: a damaged box is harder to open than a stuck one. Ring, and the box is opened, then repaired or replaced. If the guest is shut out late at night, the call is handled like any emergency, with the host confirming by phone.
The town hall is also changing the rules on where holiday lets are allowed; what the new rules mean at the front door. If you are moving the let to an electronic lock instead of a box, read how to plan its batteries and backup key, and for the seafront itself, the Albir page.